San Antonio Veterans Memorial is rolling now. After opening the season with two losses, the Patriots reeled off their sixth straight victory by downing Burbank 49-14 on Friday at the SAISD Sports Complex.

The best news is the Patriots clinched a playoff berth as a first-year varsity program.

“It is so crazy and so amazing,” Patriots quarterback Joseph Richardson said. “Everyone in the locker room is fired up. We’ve been working for this ever since we first started. We wanted to put our school on the map, and that’s what we’re doing. We just need to keep the foot on the pedal and keep doing good things.”

Veterans Memorial coach Richard Mendoza said his team didn’t necessarily think playoffs at the beginning of the season. The school opened last year and played as a junior varsity program in 2017.

“We wanted to take it one day at a time and just compete,” said Mendoza, who was doused with a water bucket after the game. “We wanted them to play hard, hustle around and play with class.”

Burbank (4-3, 3-2 District 13-5A-I) struck first when quarterback Julian Basaldua scored on a 1-yard sneak at the 10:20 mark of the first quarter. The score was set up by his 62-yard run on the first play from scrimmage.

The Bulldogs managed little after that, punting on their next four possessions. That allowed the Patriots (6-2, 6-0) to figure out things on a soggy natural-grass field.

“I told our kids to stay with it and keep chipping away,” Mendoza said. “We were on their home turf on a difficult night to play. There were going to be some waves of change, and I thought our kids handled the momentum swings well.”

After punting on its first two possessions, Veterans Memorial tied the game with 15 seconds left in the first quarter when Darius Guess caught a pass in the flat and raced 12 yards for a score.

The Patriots added touchdowns on their next six possessions to put it away.

“Our coaches told us we needed to weather the storm,” said Richardson, who accounted for four touchdowns. “Things aren’t always going to go our way. We stuck with it.”

Veterans Memorial scored 21 points in the second quarter.

Isaac Barrera, one of two quarterbacks the Patriots used, capped a nine-play, 58-yard drive with a 13-yard TD run. Richardson scored on a 2-yard keeper that was set up by Omari Frazier’s interception. Balin Jackson made it 28-7 when he caught a 28-yard TD pass from Richardson with 1:59 left in the second quarter.

The Patriots added more scores in the third quarter - an 8-yard TD run by Imari Motley, a 4-yard keeper by Richardson and a 10-yard TD run by Brandon Baker - to take a 49-7 lead.

Burbank tacked on a late score - a 3-yard TD run by Matthew Salazar that made it 49-14.